Provenance of Glacially Transported Quartz Pebbles on Long Island: Use of Pb Isotopes to Identify Far-traveled Componenets

Introduction Quartz is ubiquitous, it is the most abundant detrital component in sandstones due to its hardness and resistance to chemical alteration. A review of Pb isotope systematic in quartz demonstrates that it may be a powerful tool for constraining the provenance of detrital quartz grains (Hemming, et al., 1994). Pb isotope studies of quartz from the Canadian Shield shows high thorogenic Pb compared to quartz from Appalachian sources (Sunderman et al. in press). This study aimed to identify provenances of quartz pebbles on West Meadow Beach through Pb isotope analysis by systematically collecting and separating them into groups according to their physical characteristics. Based on physical and isotopic data, the quartz pebbles analyzed on West Meadow Beach have local origins similar to those of the boulders on Long Island.